Balance
by ferebee
Summary: An ancient power rises,Our heroes may have to trust some unlikely allies to fight it.
1. Default Chapter

Balance  
Part one  
  
  
Disclaimer:They aren't mine, I just want to play with them for a while. :-)  
  
Hi folks. This is my first Mummy fanfic, the first of several parts, and the first I've posted to  
fanfiction.net.  
The story takes place after The Mummy Returns and is obviously AU.I'm sure there will be  
gaping plot-holes as I haven't actually seen the Mummy Returns yet. I have read the script on-line  
and gathered what information I could from fansites and other sources. (At least until the  
video/dvd is released, that is.)  
  
I've taken quite a lot of liberties with history and myth, but I hope you can forgive that. Let me  
know what you think!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In the end Evy wasn't sure why she'd done it. The ancient priest was poised to fall into the pit of  
souls to die once more. More than ready, willing, betrayed by love. Perhaps that was why she had  
reached out and commanded that he take her hand. It was as much a surprise when he had done  
so. Rick had protested, but he helped her pull him to the relative safety of the ledge anyway.  
  
He'd asked why, but she never answered him. The temple crashing down around them  
forestalled that. They had fled to the surface, finding Meela's body on the way. Irony of ironies,  
she had fallen to scorpions. She was dead. The priest had gone to his knees beside her body,  
stricken. He probably would have stayed and died with her had Rick not forced him to move. The  
oasis temple had disappeared. They had watched as, like Hamunaptra, Egypt swallowed it.  
  
It seemed like a dream now; an unreality that refused to lay quiet in her mind. She had taken her  
family home to England and they'd gotten on with their lives. The Med-Jai had taken charge of  
Imhotep, though they had gotten word that he had disappeared from their custody last year.  
According to Ardeth Bey, he was no longer a threat anyway. A mortal man, nothing more.  
Ankh-Su-Namun had been his purpose. She was gone, and he was aimless. Probably dead,  
Ardeth had suggested, it had been what he wanted. Evelyn knew he wasn't.  
  
Sometimes in her dreams, she was in that other life, Nefertiri, daughter of Seti the first.She was  
never sure if these dreams were imagination or memory. For a time, they faded, only visiting her  
on rare occasions, but lately they were making a resurgence. They were strong now, vivid as life  
and frequently terrifying.  
  
She dreamed that the earth was trying to disgorge something evil; threads of some dark matter  
oozed from the ground in a dark birch forest. The dark threads came together, mingled and  
reformed into a seeking wraith, flying through the whispering trees, until it came upon a pack of  
wolves. The animals seemed to sense it's presence and scattered through the trees. Evy watched  
in horror as the wraith caught up with one of the wolves, an old female that couldn't run as fast as  
the others. She collapsed as the wraith fell on her, screaming and yowling as the dark matter  
forced its way into her body; through her eyes, her ears, her skin. Mercifully, after a few seconds  
of this, the animal lay still. The rise and fall of its chest ceased. Dead? The wolf rose, clumsily, as  
if unfamiliar with its own limbs.  
  
For one heart-stopping moment, it seemed to look directly at Evelyn.Its eyes were vacant, at  
first, then glowing with a sickly red light. It snarled at her, before running off. This was not an  
animal fleeing aimlessly. The creature that had killed it to use its body knew where it was going.  
  
She followed it for a time, and the creature knew it. She watched it run the dead wolf's body until  
it disintegrated. The wraith left this shell, seeking another body. It found a farmer working his  
fields. His poor wife saw the wraith take him, and she had tried to run when her husband came  
for her.  
The raw enjoyment it seemed to take from slaying her revolted Evelyn, but she couldn't make  
herself look away. This was all important somehow. She felt compelled to bear witness. She saw  
this same basic sequence of events  
repeated over several nights dreaming,in many lands. The wraiths were a powerful evil, but what  
was their purpose?  
  
Evelyn tried to dismiss the dreams as her unconscious, worrying over the war that now seemed  
to be inevitable. Then the dreams of Egypt had started to intrude on her dreams of the wraiths.  
  
Now she was Nefertiri, citizen of Thebes, walking in Seti's golden palace. At a meeting of  
corridors Imhotep joined her and walked with her.  
  
"You are playing a dangerous game." She told him. Nefertiri had refrained, only just, from  
blurting out, 'She is using you.'He had not answered, though he looked at her, then away,  
quickly. She, or rather Nefertiri knew that he held a grudge against Seti, old and deep and strong.  
He didn't hold it against her, however, or any of her siblings. "I don't like being in the middle.  
You put me in a difficult position, Imhotep."  
  
"For that I am sorry," he said, "I would not hurt you."  
  
'But you will.' Nefertiri had thought, 'If you and she are caught it will hurt me.' Nefertiri had a  
strong connection with the high priest, but Evelyn didn't know what exactly it was. In the wake  
of their encounters she had researched Imhotep,and Ankh-Su-Namun, but she still knew next to  
nothing about them. She suspected that Rameses, Seti's successor had erased them from any  
records that existed. Even Nefertiri was a mystery to her. For the daughter of a pharaoh she was  
very ill-documented.  
  
Imhotep carried a circlet, heavy gold with a central sun disc. Cheek pieces of gold and lapis  
beads hung down, and clicked together gently as he walked. It was a very odd design; as if it  
were not quite Egyptian.Nefertiri thought it strange too. It provided a perfect escape from the  
subject that made both priest and princess uncomfortable.  
  
"What is this? I've never seen anything quite like it."  
  
"An artifact, a piece of an ancient puzzle, and a powerful weapon."  
  
"Tell me about it."  
  
"Good and evil are eternal forces at work on life, beyond even the Gods and Goddesses.The  
world of men is but the balance between the two. It is said that in ancient times, evil and good  
grew out of balance. Evil rose from all of the corners of the earth, driving men who had been  
brothers, friends to war. Kingdoms which had existed peaceably since before time was recorded  
now were bent on destroying each other. Plagues rose, killing the weak; crops failed, and herds  
died. Kingdoms fell and disappeared, leaving only ruins in their wake.With every death Evil  
grew stronger and stronger, and began to form itself into a single entity, intent on wiping life  
from the face of the earth.  
  
"Faced with this horror, the wisest men and women in the kingdoms that were left gathered to  
find a way to bring good and evil back into balance.  
Drawn by dreams and visions, priests from Egypt travelled east with Hittites, Sumerians,  
Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Scythians, following the Silk-Traders road to be met by priests and  
scholars from the Eastern Kingdoms in a place its inhabitants called the Pastures of Heaven."  
  
In a luminous flash of another's memory, Evelyn saw Imhotep as a young man, telling Nefertiri  
the small child stories. The telling of tales was comfortable and familiar to both, a place to retreat  
from this situation that pained them both.  
  
"In many languages, among many gods and spirits, the priests and scholars contrived a solution  
they hoped would stop the Evil.Through spells and prayers to their gods, they concentrated the  
powers of light in three sacred objects. From the eastern kingdoms, a sword made from a fallen  
star, given supernatural strength by creatures they called dragons, givers of life, keepers of the  
elements.  
  
"The Mycenaeans, Minoans and Hittites called upon their great mother goddesses, those who  
bring forth life, to give their strength to a dagger of gold, as the sun, and silver, as the moon. The  
blade can pierce any armour, and it will never dull.  
  
"The Egyptians and the Sumerians created this crown, calling on Ra, and the Sumerian Utu,  
gods of the sun, to imbue it with their power, which would protect its wearer from mortal  
weapons."  
  
"What good would a dagger, a sword and a crown do against this evil?" Nefertiri asked.  
  
"By themselves, they were nothing. A vessel was chosen; one who would wield these three, one  
through whom the power that lay in each would flow. This one would face the Evil personified  
and force it back into balance with good, restoring the world to normal. They met on the Pastures  
of Heaven on the winter solstice to do battle."  
  
"And good won?"  
  
"We are all still here."  
  
"How did this chosen one defeat the Evil?"  
  
"Only the chosen and the gods know that."  
  
"What if it comes back?"  
  
"It will. That is the Evil's nature."  
  
"Is it soon? Is that why you have the crown?"  
  
"No, by the time it returns you and I will have been dust for thousands of years. Your father  
wished to see it, so I brought it from where it is kept hidden."  
  
"The other pieces are hidden in their own lands?"  
  
"Hidden and tended for the time when they will once more be needed. I am returning this now."  
  
"Where? Is it a long journey?"  
  
"So many questions, Nefertiri." He smiled, "You were always full of questions."  
  
"Well?"  
  
"I go into the Western Desert.That much I can tell you."  
  
"I wish I could journey with you." Evelyn felt her longing to leave the city of life like it was a  
pain. "I imagine I could feel free in the desert," she mused.  
  
"We are none of us free." He spoke heavily, almost apologetically. Nefertiri hung her head. She  
knew this too. She was a pharaoh's daughter; she could only be free in death. "Fate has plans for  
all of us. We cannot escape them."  
  



	2. Chapter Two

Balance  
Chapter 2  
  
Disclaimers and info back in chapter 1  
  
  
The night after, she was back there once more, walking the same cool, quiet hallway. Imhotep  
joined her once again, but this time his hands were empty and he appeared more urgent than  
before. Nefertiri's thoughts weren't with her tonight, the princess said nothing as he watched her  
curiously, expectantly. With dawning realization she looked down at her body. She was walking  
in Thebes as herself. Here she was as she had fallen asleep in the library, trying to find references  
to his story of ancient evil. She wore her nightgown and robe, and carried a thick volume on the  
Minoans of Crete.  
  
"Why are you influencing my dreams?" She rounded on the priest, throwing her book at him. He  
dodged, but not fast enough to avoid it completely. It struck a glancing blow off his shoulder,  
leaving a bright red mark. "Tell me!"  
  
"I have no power over your dreams!" He stooped to retrieve the book, looking at the photo plates  
where it had fallen open. He touched a picture of the ruins at Knossos, and another of a bare-  
breasted goddess with snakes in her hands. He shut it and held it out to her. Evy edged forward,  
cautiously. Imhotep's face betrayed little emotion. Once close enough, she snatched it from him  
and held it to her chest like a shield.  
  
"I was here, in my dreams, last night."  
  
"As was I, but I didn't bring you here." Imhotep took a step toward her, and she stepped back,  
wishing she was armed. "They are all gone, aren't they?"  
  
"Who?" She would have edged back a little further, but there was a wall at her back now.  
  
"The Minoans." He gestured to her book. "The Sumerians, the Hittites. They are all gone, like my  
Egypt is gone. They are all ruins for tomb robbers and treasure hunters to plunder."  
  
Evelyn felt he was lumping her in with those two groups, and her hackles rose. She opened her  
mouth to argue that she was an archaeologist (Well, archaeologist slash librarian) and  
archaeology was a science. She was not a tomb robber or a treasure hunter, thank you very much!  
In the end though, what she said was "Yes." To him there would be no difference. Both  
scientists and looters broke into tombs, taking away grave goods, disturbing the dead. Both made  
profit, in the end.  
  
Imhotep's stern expression didn't change, but she read deep dismay in his eyes, and a slight  
bowing of the shoulders. He had seen other parts of the world when Meela had resurrected him,  
hadn't he learned how the world had moved on from her, or from Beni? Beni probably wouldn't  
have thought of it, but Meela? Maybe it hadn't served her purposes to tell him.  
  
"These dreams you blame on me...What have you seen?" His stare was intense and unnerving, as  
always. She didn't want to tell him about the dreams. She hadn't even liked telling Rick, though  
she'd always felt comfortable speaking to him about her problems.   
  
"My husband says that I'm just reacting to all the bad news lately. The whole world seems to be  
hurling itself towards war, and..." Evelyn trailed off.feeling panic clutch it's fist around her heart.  
"The wraiths are real. Evil is rising and it's happening now..."  
  
Imhotep's answer was a single, precise nod. His eyes never left hers, and she found it hard to look  
away. The side of her brain that was reason said, 'Don't believe him, he's lying to you. This is part  
of some elaborate plan to regain power, or rule the world or some such thing. For all you know,  
he may be responsible for those wraith things.' The part that was instinct was much more direct.  
It said, 'This is real, you've been dreaming them for a reason. Something is happening out there  
and it has to be stopped, so hop to it Evy!' She really wished her brain would be a little more  
helpful at the moment.  
  
"Why have I been shown these things? Who by?" She asked, trying to keep a slim grasp on  
reason's side.  
  
He looked down, keeping his head lowered for a few moments. When he looked up, she saw  
fright, ever so briefly, in his eyes. "We are being called; by whom, I don't know. Perhaps the  
Gods," He said quietly, "Perhaps not." Evelyn shuddered as a cold knot settled in her stomach;  
she felt sick and slightly dizzy. She slid down the wall to sit on the cold stone floor,  
overwhelmed by the implications. Imhotep knelt, keeping a respectful distance.  
  
"You are a scholar, are you not?" She nodded. "I am still a priest of Osiris, despite..everything.  
Probably the only priest of Osiris there has been for hundreds of years."  
  
"Thousands," Evelyn found herself saying, "It has been over three thousand years since you were  
entombed."  
  
This number shocked him, he seemed to pale just a little. "Truly?"  
  
"Did no one tell you this?"  
  
"No," He rose and walked away from her, "No. Three thousand..." He composed himself and  
walked back to her. "I know where the crown is hidden. At Hamunaptra there were scrolls,  
records made by the ancients that may tell us where to find the sword and the dagger, and what  
we must do to find the conduit-"  
  
"We?" Evelyn interrupted, standing to face him. "You say 'we' as if it were simple. How can 'we'  
do anything together after all that has happened, all that you have done? Do you expect me to  
drop everything and come to Egypt on your say?"  
  
"When I hung between life and death in the pit of souls, you and your husband chose to save my  
life, though I had tried to end yours. I owe you my continued existence, twice over, and I repay."   
For the first time, she noticed that Imhotep looked...weathered, tired even. His robes were  
tattered and there was a healing scrape on his hand. He was no longer immortal or invincible, just  
a man with tired eyes and a hint of stubble on his jaw. "I would not harm you or yours."  
  
"This has to be done." Evelyn said numbly.   
  
"It must be done," He said, "or your world is lost."  
  
"Then I will come." She could hardly believe she had said it, but there it was. "Where will I find  
you?"  
  
"Hamunaptra," He took a step back. He was fading, as was she. The dream world was fading, and  
she could hear Rick faintly, calling her name, "Hamunaptra, where it began." 


End file.
